1. Disclosure of the Co-Pending Application
The above-referenced co-pending parent application discloses a virtual computer consisting of a reconfigurable control section and a reconfigurable computation array. Preferably, the reconfigurable control section is a relatively small array of interconnected field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), while the reconfigurable computation array is a relatively large array of interconnected FPGAs whose configurations are governed by the control section. When power is first turned on, the control section automatically configures itself to emulate a microprocessor suitable for rapidly re-configuring the computation array in response to each new instruction to be carried out or executed. (The term "instruction" as understood herein is generic and can refer to either an individual instruction of a program, a group of instructions, an algorithm, a sub-routine or a program.) Preferably, the control section compiles each new instruction (e.g., an individual instruction of a program, a group of instructions, an algorithm, a sub-routine or a program) by generating therefrom respective sets of configuration bits for respective ones of the FPGAs in the computation array, and then causing those computation array FPGAs to be reconfigured accordingly. The advantage is that such a virtual computer has far greater speed than a conventional computer, as explained more fully in the above-referenced application. While the above-referenced application discloses an implementation employing many FPGAs in both the computation array and in the control section, other implementations may be carried out using a smaller number of FPGAs. For example, a limited application could suffice with only a single FPGA in the control section and a single FPGA in the computation array.
2. Background Art
Computer networks of the type usually referred to as "local area networks" or LANs are well-known in the art, one of the best known LANs being the Ethernet.TM. LAN. Such networks have many uses such as, for example, permitting instant communication among co-workers at respective terminals or nodes of the network. Each terminal or node may be a personal computer or a work station. Another use of an LAN is to emulate a supercomputer by joining many work stations over an LAN. A fundamental problem with such a network is that the node or terminal (a personal computer, work station or the like) must act as a host and perform a number of required tasks, which necessarily consumes the resources of the host, or postpones such tasks while the host completes higher-priority tasks. The required tasks can include performing the network protocol tasks, converting data on the network (typically serial error correction encoded compressed data blocks) into parallel 16-bit words for processing in the host, and vice-versa, decoding data packet headers, and so forth. Because of the demand on-the host's limited processing resources, these tasks are necessarily performed at a limited speed, so that the rate at which data can be communicated over the LAN is limited. Moreover, from the point of view of the host's user, participation in the network requires some sacrifice of the host's resources to network-related tasks.